The co-pending applications to the herein disclosed invention relate to bending and quenching heated glass sheets wherein combined bending and quenching at one station reduce roll marking and press face distortion in the bent glass sheets, blemishes associated with conventional bending and tempering apparatus. A pair of spaced opposed platens are provided for controlled bending and subsequent quenching of a heated glass sheet.
During the operation of the bending and quench station, it was discovered that even though the shape of the bend in the glass sheet was correct after the bending, there occasionally was relative horizontal movement between the upper and lower platens during the bending. It also appeared that this relative horizontal movement resulted because the actuators that provided vertical displacement of the platens which resulted in the bent shape were pivotally connected to the platens.
With such pivotal connection, a properly shaped bend could be accomplished in the heated glass sheet received on the lower platen; however, the specific geometric orientation of the bend on the glass sheet could vary if the upper and lower platens moved relative to one another. Thereby a longitudinally extending bend in the glass sheet could be created that was nearer, in a transverse direction to, an outside edge of the glass sheet, the outside edge being parallel to the bend.